There are approximately 40,000 known sites that are automatically protected.

These sites continue to be protected after the 2013 B.C. Supreme Court ruling regarding archaeological research on private property.

To alter a protected site, the property owner will require a Site Alteration Permit.

Where there is sufficient existing information regarding the nature of the site and proposed impacts to the site, the Archaeology Branch will consider site alteration permit applications.

If there is insufficient information in the site alteration permit application, the Archaeology Branch will not be able to process the application until the information deficiencies are addressed.

The onus falls upon the property owner to provide the branch with the necessary information about the site and this may include the completion of an archaeological impact assessment. The Branch is not requiring that this work be done but it does require sufficient information before it can issue an alteration permit and the impact assessment is one way of obtaining this information

It is up to the property owner if they wish to undertake an archaeological impact assessment, but without the necessary information, the branch cannot issue an alteration permit and the property owners cannot alter the archaeological site on their property.

Property owners can use the Archaeology Branch online site data request form to find out if there is a protected archaeological sites on their property

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